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Dragonflame Cactus
Dragonflame Cactus was first mentioned by name in Moon Rising, but first used in The Lost Heir. It grows only in high altitudes, in the mountains. When ignited, the cactus explodes and sends spiny seed pods everywhere. In a climate surrounded by fire-breathing SkyWings, this was a good adaption, as SkyWings tend to release fire quite often and Turtle described this as a "cool evolutionary trait." Appearance The cactus itself is described as an odd-looking pink sphere with shades of brown and green. It's covered in spikes with roots visible on the bottom. Dragonflame cactus pods are misshapen spheres about the size of a rainforest frog. They are covered with sharp, prickly thorns that cling to whatever they come in contact with and dig into it, like teeth. They are blackish-brown, with a bright green interior. The cacti are described to be extremely hard to harvest, especially for SandWings due to the heat that radiates from their scales, which triggers the explosion. History ''The Lost Heir The SkyWings found the Summer Palace with the help of Crocodile who was following Webs. As a result, the SkyWings bombed the palace with Dragonflame Cacti, resulting in the treetop of the island exploding and the pavilion being demolished. Moon Rising Moon was hit with a seed pod of the dragonflame cactus in the explosion of the history cave. She and Turtle went into the lake at the bottom of Jade Mountain to wash her wounds. Turtle revealed that the SkyWings used the cacti as bombs in the attack of the Summer Palace. His mother, Queen Coral, tortured a SkyWing prisoner until he told her what the cacti was used for. Turtle also tells Tsunami and Sunny about the bomb when they are talking about the school. Moon eventually found out that Sora, a MudWing who was allied with the SkyWings, learned of these and rigged the history room of the Jade Mountain Academy with the cactus, in hopes of killing her roommate, Icicle, who killed Sora's sister. When ignited, the cactus exploded and killed two dragons, Bigtail and Carnelian, while seriously injuring another dragon, Tamarin. Moonwatcher was also mildly injured on the shoulder. Sora claimed that they were, as a SkyWing general described, "collateral damage." ''Escaping Peril In the town of Possibility, Qibli's siblings, Sirocco and Rattlesnake are seen attempting to buy thirty of the cacti off of a red SkyWing, who exclaims how hard it is to harvest and does not give them as many cacti as they asked for. One of the SandWings kicks a cactus towards Peril which explodes. Peril is the most affected from the explosion, but the thorns of the cacti were embedded into her scales are burned off from the heat emitted by Peril's scales. Peril describes the sensation of as "tiny teeth eating under her scales." Talons of Power In the epilogue, it was said that three different cacti were set off to go exactly the same time in three seperate locations in the Kingdom of Sand, and that dragons in black hoods wearing medallions stamped with a bird were seen fleeing the scene. It is likely Sirocco and Rattlesnake were among these dragons, as they bought lots of dragonflame cacti in Possibility in ''Escaping Peril''. Trivia *The manner in which the cacti explode makes them a cluster bomb. *The cacti are similar to certain pines which have their seeds stored in closed ("serotinous") cones for many years until an environmental cue triggers the cones to open, releasing the seeds. The most common form of serotiny is pyriscence, in which a resin binds the cones shut until melted by a forest fire. This leaves the seeds to be nurtured by a resurfacing environment. fr:Cactus flamme-de-dragon Category:SkyWing History Category:Plants Category:SeaWing History